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34 INTRODUCTION.
• ready to take up. He was himself an author, and wrote a diary
of events from I498 to 1512, which was at one time attributed to
Machiavelli 1. A manuscript copy of The Prince, now preserved
in the Laurentian library at Florence, is preceded by a letter
from Buonaccorsi to a certain Pandolfo Bellacio ; the manuscript,
as well as the letter, is said to be in the handwriting of Buonaccorsi.
The passage from this letter, which is important in the
present connection, is as follows :--
' Ti mando 1' operetta, composta nuovamente de' Principati dal
nostro Niccol6 Machiavelli, nella quale tu troverai con somma
diluciditS, e brevit_t descritte tutte le qualitS_ de' Principati, tutti
i rnodi a eonservargli, tutte le offese di essi, con una esatta
notizia delle istorie antiche e moderne, e molti altri documenti
utilissimi, in modo the se tu la leggerai con quella medesima
attenzione che tu suoli le altre cose, sono certissimo ne trarrai
non piccola utilitY. Ricevilo adunque con quella prontezza the
si ricerca, e preparati acerrimo difensore contro a tutti quelli, che
per malignit_ o invidia lo volessino, secondo 1' uso di questi
tempi, mordere e lacerare 2/
This letter is undated, but the word 'nuovamente,' and the
fact that Buonaccorsi still refers to Machiavelli's book by its
original title, makes it extremely probable that it was written
shortly after 15i 3 3. The evidence it supplies, despite its somewhat
indefinite character, is valuable, for it contains the first
indications of an opposition to The _Prince, and that without
any doubt during Machiavelli's lifetime. Such opposition is
explained as the result of envious detraction, and there is
no reason to doubt that it really existed; but it is important
to bear in mind that the ' Discorsi' also are said to have been
attacked in a precisely similar manner 4; it was not tilt later that
1 For a fuller account of Buonaccorsi, seeVillan, i. 33 I, note i. He was born
in i472
2 The full text of this letter may be found in most of the editions and recent
biographies ; see e.g. Op 1. xln.
Polidon [Arch. St Ital. vol. iv. pt. 2] conjectures that it was written in
r514. It is very probable that this is correct
4 Preface to the Giuuta edition of the Discorsi, I543 : ' Bernardo dl Gmnta a
Ottaviano de Medaci Patritio Fiorentino S .... Ricevete addunq, con lieto et
gratioso animo questo piccolissimo segnio dell' osservantia et devotione nostra
verso di voi, et di tutta la V. Illustrissima casa, et di molti beneficij ncevuti da
loro, dtfendenvto ptetosamente con l' auto_qt_ et grande*a rostra la p,'esente opera da
ipresuntt_osi mot_idelh znvidi,' etc. But is this more than the ordinary language